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A Qualitative Study Exploring Menstruation Experiences and Practices among Adolescent Girls Living in the Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda

(1) Background: Girls in low- and lower-middle income countries face challenges in menstrual health management (MHM), which impact their health and schooling. This might be exacerbated by refugee conditions. This study aimed at describing menstruation practices and experiences of adolescent girls in...

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Autores principales: Kemigisha, Elizabeth, Rai, Masna, Mlahagwa, Wendo, Nyakato, Viola N., Ivanova, Olena
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7558145/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32932817
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186613
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author Kemigisha, Elizabeth
Rai, Masna
Mlahagwa, Wendo
Nyakato, Viola N.
Ivanova, Olena
author_facet Kemigisha, Elizabeth
Rai, Masna
Mlahagwa, Wendo
Nyakato, Viola N.
Ivanova, Olena
author_sort Kemigisha, Elizabeth
collection PubMed
description (1) Background: Girls in low- and lower-middle income countries face challenges in menstrual health management (MHM), which impact their health and schooling. This might be exacerbated by refugee conditions. This study aimed at describing menstruation practices and experiences of adolescent girls in Nakivale refugee settlement in Southwestern Uganda. (2) Methods: We conducted a qualitative study from March to May 2018 and we intentionally selected participants to broadly represent different age groups and countries of origin. We conducted 28 semistructured interviews and two focus group discussions. Data were transcribed and translated into English. Analysis included data familiarization, manual coding, generation and refining of themes. (3) Results: Main findings included: (a) challenging social context with negative experiences during migration, family separation and scarcity of resources for livelihood within the settlement; (b) unfavorable menstruation experiences, including unpreparedness for menarche and lack of knowledge, limitations in activity and leisure, pain, school absenteeism and psychosocial effects; (c) menstrual practices, including use of unsuitable alternatives for MHM and poor health-seeking behavior. (4) Conclusions: A multipronged approach to MHM management is crucial, including comprehensive sexual education, enhancement of parent–adolescent communication, health sector partnership and support from NGOs to meet the tailored needs of adolescent girls.
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spelling pubmed-75581452020-10-29 A Qualitative Study Exploring Menstruation Experiences and Practices among Adolescent Girls Living in the Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda Kemigisha, Elizabeth Rai, Masna Mlahagwa, Wendo Nyakato, Viola N. Ivanova, Olena Int J Environ Res Public Health Article (1) Background: Girls in low- and lower-middle income countries face challenges in menstrual health management (MHM), which impact their health and schooling. This might be exacerbated by refugee conditions. This study aimed at describing menstruation practices and experiences of adolescent girls in Nakivale refugee settlement in Southwestern Uganda. (2) Methods: We conducted a qualitative study from March to May 2018 and we intentionally selected participants to broadly represent different age groups and countries of origin. We conducted 28 semistructured interviews and two focus group discussions. Data were transcribed and translated into English. Analysis included data familiarization, manual coding, generation and refining of themes. (3) Results: Main findings included: (a) challenging social context with negative experiences during migration, family separation and scarcity of resources for livelihood within the settlement; (b) unfavorable menstruation experiences, including unpreparedness for menarche and lack of knowledge, limitations in activity and leisure, pain, school absenteeism and psychosocial effects; (c) menstrual practices, including use of unsuitable alternatives for MHM and poor health-seeking behavior. (4) Conclusions: A multipronged approach to MHM management is crucial, including comprehensive sexual education, enhancement of parent–adolescent communication, health sector partnership and support from NGOs to meet the tailored needs of adolescent girls. MDPI 2020-09-11 2020-09 /pmc/articles/PMC7558145/ /pubmed/32932817 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186613 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Kemigisha, Elizabeth
Rai, Masna
Mlahagwa, Wendo
Nyakato, Viola N.
Ivanova, Olena
A Qualitative Study Exploring Menstruation Experiences and Practices among Adolescent Girls Living in the Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda
title A Qualitative Study Exploring Menstruation Experiences and Practices among Adolescent Girls Living in the Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda
title_full A Qualitative Study Exploring Menstruation Experiences and Practices among Adolescent Girls Living in the Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda
title_fullStr A Qualitative Study Exploring Menstruation Experiences and Practices among Adolescent Girls Living in the Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda
title_full_unstemmed A Qualitative Study Exploring Menstruation Experiences and Practices among Adolescent Girls Living in the Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda
title_short A Qualitative Study Exploring Menstruation Experiences and Practices among Adolescent Girls Living in the Nakivale Refugee Settlement, Uganda
title_sort qualitative study exploring menstruation experiences and practices among adolescent girls living in the nakivale refugee settlement, uganda
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7558145/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32932817
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186613
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